Category Archives: data

Communities, data, Disability, Housing, links

Useful posts to Sept 6: welfare reforms mauled;whose upturn? dreading UC

These are some welfare links we found interesting during the first week of September.

Communities, data, Homelessness, Housing

Useful links for June: bedroom tax; zero hour contracts; food poverty.

There are three round-up pieces over a few days, of news and data source items on welfare related issues. They are to bridge the gap of the last few months before these news stops become a regular post.

Keep your fingers hovering over the comment form below as we would really like to find out how you use the data links and what areas you want included.

Communities, data, Homelessness

Useful links for May: child poverty; risk of night shelter closure; food banks struggle to cope

Here and over the next couple of days is a round-up of news items and data sources, bridging the gap of the last few months on welfare related issues. This will become a regular post.

Keep your fingers on the keyboard to let us know if and how you use the data, or how we can improve by using the comment form below.

data

Get the data: organogram of Job Centre Plus

Job Centre organogram

The Department for Work and Pensions has published data about posts in Job Centre Plus. The organogram shows the title, hierarchy and salary of positions in the company.

The PDF shown above (click to see full size) is also available here.

A guide to data sets, explaining the meaning of ‘salary cost of reports’ can be found here.

If you find the data useful, or need any further help, please get in touch.

data

Get the data: organogram and staff pay

DWP organogram

The Department for Work and Pensions has published data about Senior Civil Service posts, including the title, hierarchy and salary. Information is given on a variety of sectors such as Job Centre Plus, disability, employment, welfare and Directgov.

The organogram (PDF) shown above is also available here.

A guide to data sets, explaining the meaning of ‘salary cost of reports’ can be found here.

If you find the data useful, or need any further help, please get in touch.

data, Housing

DWP changes “open data” tool after Help Me Investigate raises concerns

The Department for Work and Pensions has promised a series of improvements to an online tool promoted as an example of “open data” after concerns were raised by Help Me Investigate.

Stat-Xplore was one of the case studies described in a DWP report on open data earlier this year. But on launch the site failed to meet basic open data principles listed by the Government’s own Public Sector Transparency Board (PDF), making it difficult for citizens and developers to use the data.

Continue reading DWP changes “open data” tool after Help Me Investigate raises concerns →

data

Number of employees on zero hour contracts doubles in 6 years

Zero hour contracts 2005-2011
Zero hour contracts 2005-2011 – click to see a larger, interactive version

Official data shows a dramatic increase in the number of people on zero hour contracts since 2005, writes Danielle Hudspith.

In the six years since then the number of people working on zero hour contracts between April and June rose from almost 55,000 to over 105,000.

And between October and December the figures more than doubled from over 75,000 to almost 161,000. Continue reading Number of employees on zero hour contracts doubles in 6 years →

data, Homelessness, Housing, Tips and tutorials

Illegal use of B&Bs to house homeless families – how to investigate your local figures (and learn some useful data techniques too)

The Guardian’s Randeep Ramesh reports today on the use of bed and breakfasts to house families beyond the legal time limit of six weeks.

The national picture is that half of the 242 authorities who responded had placed homeless families in private accommodation for more than 6 weeks since April 2010. But what’s your local picture?

A good first stop is your local authority’s expenditure above £500. To find this, try a search like ‘expenditure 500 site:bolton.gov.uk‘ – but replace the last bit with your own local authority’s website (excluding the www.).

Download it and open in Excel or Google Docs (if you need to convert it from PDF try pdftoexcelonline.com). Now it’s time to filter… Continue reading Illegal use of B&Bs to house homeless families – how to investigate your local figures (and learn some useful data techniques too) →

data

Workfare – how the different government work experience schemes compare

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James Ball has gathered some information on the government’s work experience schemes over on The Guardian’s Reality Check, along with some useful context. The schemes are split into the following: Continue reading Workfare – how the different government work experience schemes compare →